HOUSE REPUBLICAN RADICALS MAY UNDO BIPARTISAN SENATE COMPROMISE ON
MILITARY ENVIRONMENTAL EXEMPTIONS

WASHINGTON DC -- An eight-month struggle over whether
America’s
military will receive special exemptions from public health and environmental
laws will finally be resolved in September. A House-Senate conference
committee plans to finalize its work on the Fiscal Year 2004 Defense
Authorization bill shortly after Labor Day. The committee will decide
the fate of proposed sweeping new exemptions from critical provisions
of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and Marine Mammal Protection Act
(MMPA) covering tens of thousands of acres of military lands and waters
and broad areas of military activities, along with a special rider
that would jeopardize the San Pedro River National Conservation Area
in Arizona. Senators McCain and Levin are key conferees who will help
craft the final bill.

The conferees must resolve differences between the Defense Authorization
bills passed by the House and Senate, including serious differences
on military environmental exemptions. The House bill includes virtually
blank-check exemptions for the Department of Defense (DOD) from the
ESA and MMPA, along with a special rider exempting Fort Huachuca in
Arizona from water conservation requirements.

The Senate rejected DOD’s proposal for a blanket exemption from
the Endangered Species Act, instead adopting a bipartisan amendment
allowing case-by-case ESA exemptions if the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service determines that they are warranted. The Senate also opted to
leave proposed changes to the Marine Mammal Protection Act out of the
Defense Authorization bill, and allow the Commerce Committee which
is already working on a complete reauthorization of the MMPA to consider
DOD’s proposals in the context of other possible changes to the
law.

A major struggle is brewing in Washington, with
key Republican leaders in the House fighting to keep their blank-check
exemptions instead
of the Senate’s more reasonable bipartisan proposal.

RECENT EVENTS CONFIRM THE SENATE’S WISDOM

Recent events have confirmed that the Senate’s more reasonable
approach is the best way to ensure military training while protecting
our health and environment.

Key House Republican says keep
marine mammal language out of DOD bill

Republican Representative Wayne Gilchrest Chair of
the Fisheries Conservation, Wildlife, and Oceans Subcommittee
of the House Resources Committee
recently asserted the Resource Committee’s jurisdiction over
the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Gilchrest told Defense Authorization
conferees that the military MMPA exemption included in the House
bill should be removed. Gilchrest’s subcommittee is in the
process of revising the MMPA, and he wants all changes considered
in context as part of their update of the law.

House bill also preempts Senate Commerce Committee
MMPA revision

The Senate Commerce Committee is also working on
a reauthorization of the MMPA and has promised to consider DOD’s concerns. All
this raises the question: why not let the committees that understand
marine mammal issues consider DOD’s request while they’re
working on a general MMPA revision?

Army fire destroys endangered species at Makua Valley

In late July, a “controlled” burn at the Army’s Makua
Military Reservation in Hawai’i ran wild and scorched almost
3,000 acres of federal and state lands that include dozens of endangered
species, some found nowhere else on earth. July’s fire is only
the latest in a pattern of blazes over several years that have destroyed
habitat crucial to the survival of endangered species and threatened
Native Hawaiian cultural sites. Makua could become exempt from the
ESA and from any meaningful oversight by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service under the House bill. The Army’s Integrated Natural
Resources Management Plan (INRMP) for Makua which would be substituted
for critical
habitat designation under the House bill failed to prevent this and
other damage to endangered species.

Navy sonar traumatizes whales in Haro Strait

Navy sonar traumatized and may have killed whales and porpoises in
Washington’s Haro Strait in early May. The sonar’s intense
sound was clearly audible above the water, and much louder to marine
mammals and their extraordinarily sensitive hearing below the surface.
Scientific eyewitnesses said that the sonar definitely affected an
entire pod of orcas, a minke whale, and porpoises, all of which expressed
agitation and fear, and desperately attempted to flee the area. Porpoises
were later found dead on nearby beaches. In May, Washington Governor
Gary Locke asked the Navy for a full report on the Haro Strait incident
and requested a plan to mitigate the impact of Navy sonar on marine
mammals in Puget Sound. The Vancouver Sun recently reported that
the federal government’s analysis will not be completed for
several more months. Navy sonar previously caused the beaching
and death of beaked whales in the Bahamas, and has been linked
to strandings
and deaths in at least five other incidents.

DOD environmental fines and penalties still on upward trend

The Pentagon’s own data demonstrate that fines and penalties
assessed against the DOD continue to climb. As the attached chart shows,
the trend of environmental fines and penalties levied against the military
by federal agencies, states, and local governments continues its steady
climb. The data do not include a $27 million penalty (later reduced
to $16 million) assessed against the Army’s Fort Wainwright for
consistent and dangerous violations of the Clean Air Act. Will DOD’s
reward for breaking environmental and public health laws be a get-out-of-jail-free
card?

Pentagon mislead Congress about Camp Pendleton

U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg who sponsored the bipartisan compromise
ESA amendment recently rebutted claims made by the Pentagon about
training at Camp Pendleton in California. Senator Lautenberg
points out that the Pentagon’s claim that the ESA limits
training on over half of Camp Pendleton is patently false. In
fact, critical
habitat for endangered species covers less than 1% of the training
lands on the base. The explosive growth of nearby urban areas,
the lease of base lands for private agricultural operations,
San Onofre
nuclear power plant, and Interstate Highway 5 are the real pressures
on Camp Pendleton.

BACKGROUND ON THE HOUSE AND SENATE LANGUAGE

San Pedro River National Conservation Area

Arizona Representative Rick Renzi attached a rider
to the House Defense Authorization bill, exempting the DOD from any
responsibility for off-base
water use including “irrigation and landscaping” caused
by the Fort’s presence and activities. The rider seeks to undercut
a cooperative water conservation agreement reached last year between
the base and the Fish and Wildlife Service, and supported by local
environmentalists. If the rider passes, the San Pedro River -- designated
by Congress as a National Conservation Area because of its unique biodiversity
-- will almost certainly die.

Endangered Species Act (ESA)

The House bill would issue a blank check to DOD, allowing the Pentagon
to substitute its own Integrated Natural Resource Management Plans
which are often never funded or implemented for the designation of
critical habitat to ensure the survival of endangered species on military
lands. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has already found INRMPs
to be inadequate to protect endangered species, and already has and
consistently uses the authority to tailor critical habitat designations
in deference to military training.

The Senate adopted a bipartisan amendment to allow
the DOD to substitute its INRMPs for critical habitat designation,
but only if the plans
are reviewed by the Fish and Wildlife Service and the agency’s
director certifies that they will in fact protect wildlife, and that
there are adequate guarantees that the provisions will be funded and
implemented.

Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA)

The Senate has already agreed that any changes to
the MMPA should occur in the committee of jurisdiction the Commerce
Committee where
members and staff are most knowledgeable about the MMPA and can consider
any changes in context. However, the House adopted DOD’s proposed
wholesale MMPA exemption, which seeks to allow the Pentagon to avoid
review of its actions by other agencies and attempts to exempt the
military from existing restrictions that state that any killing or
injuring of marine mammals must be limited to small numbers in a specific
geographic area.